Local families grapple with possible parole of relatives' killers

Staff Reporter

Wednesday

Jun 18, 2014 at 6:00 AM

A state Supreme Judicial Court ruling that made 65 convicted killers eligible for parole last December has re-opened old wounds for the victim's families.

BROCKTON – It’s been 28 years since Lewis Jennings, 79, was beaten and strangled in his Middleboro home, but his daughter, Donna Villaire, still gets emotional when she discusses his death.“It’s still very difficult to talk about,” Villaire said. “Years go by, but you don’t forget it.”

Jeffrey Roberio was 17 when he and another man killed Jennings while robbing his house. At his trial, Roberio was convicted of first-degree murder and given the mandatory sentence: life without parole.

However, a decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court last December ruled that life without parole was a cruel and unusual punishment for minors because scientific evidence shows that juvenile brains are not yet fully developed.

The SJC ruling, which was applied retroactively to the sentences of convicted killers like Roberio, came in the wake of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down mandatory life sentences for juveniles.

As a result of the SJC decision, 65 prisoners sentenced to life without parole as juveniles will now have the opportunity to win back their freedom, including Roberio.

“Obviously, our family is devastated,” Villaire said. “My family now has to relive this again.”

Of those 65 prisoners, 44 have already served at least 15 years of their sentence, the minimum number of years required to become eligible for parole.

In addition to Roberio’s case, six of those 65 cases stem from murders that took place in Brockton, including the case of Frederick Christian, who was convicted of first-degree murder for his role in a 1994 armed robbery that left two men dead and another injured.

In May, Christian and another man, Joseph Donovan, became the first of the 65 juveniles sentenced to life without parole to appear before the state’s Parole Board. Earlier this month, Christian became the first to be granted parole.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said he was “shocked and disappointed” in the wake of the Parole Board’s decision to grant Christian parole.

“Christian, although he didn’t pull the trigger, was involved in a cold-blooded execution in a drug rip that he set up,” Cruz said.

While the circumstances involving each case will be different, Cruz added that he is concerned about these convicted killers coming before the Parole Board.

“I am definitely concerned about these individuals having their parole hearing and being released,” Cruz said. “It’s very upsetting to the family members of the victims.”

While weighing whether inmates should be granted parole, the Parole Board considers not only their original offense, but also an inmate’s criminal past and subsequent behavior while incarcerated.

However, unlike the killers, Cruz said, the victims of these crimes will not get a second chance at life.

“The people who were dead are not getting any chance to be released. They’re dead. That’s not changing,” Cruz said.

James Conley Jr., the brother of murdered taxi cab driver Edward Conley, expressed a similar sentiment when discussing the possibility that his brother’s killer, Adilson Neves, might one day be paroled.

In 2008, Neves shot Edward Conley in the back of his head, killing him, after luring the taxi driver to a dead-end street in Brockton in an attempted robbery.

“I don’t get it. I don’t understand it at all,” Conley said, adding that Neves was only about a month away from his 18th birthday at the time of the murder.

Villaire also described the possibility that Roberio might receive parole as “beyond belief.”

“To be paroled or have the opportunity for parole, after committing a horrific act like that, it’s beyond comprehension,” Villaire said.

The state Senate is currently working on a bill that would raise the minimum number of years juveniles convicted of first-degree murder would have to serve before becoming eligible for parole from 15 years to 20 to 25 years.

For crimes that were deemed to involve deliberate premeditated malice or extreme atrocity or cruelty, the wait would be raised to 25 to 30 years.

The measure was advanced Monday by the Judiciary Committee, but still needs approval from the full House and Senate. No date has been set for a vote.

Material from an Associated Press report was used in this story. Edward Donga may be reached at edonga@enter prisenews.com.

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